Sister Kathleen Higgins, MM

Born: September 5, 1929
Entered: September 6, 1947
Died: January 13, 2024

For Sister Kathleen Higgins, Saturday, January 13, 2024 was to be her last day on earth but no one suspected it. Although not feeling her best, she was determined to join the community in chapel for the Rosary and Mass. After dinner, she fell asleep until about 3:00 PM when she was offered oxygen to help her relax. However it was the Sacrament of the Sick, administered by Maryknoll Father John Lange with several Sisters in attendance that brought her real peace. Given the strength of her vital signs, no one foresaw that by 9:00 PM, she would slip away quietly into God’s loving embrace. Katie, the name by which we all knew her was 95 years old and had been a Maryknoll Sister for almost 77 years.

Kathleen Mary Higgins was born on Sept 5, 1929, in Brooklyn, NY, to Albert Higgins and Catherine Flynn Higgins. She had two brothers, Albert and Peter. Although the firstborn, she was the last to be called to eternal life. Katie is survived by her sister-in-law, Joan, the widow of Peter and their two daughters, Catherine and Elizabeth, and the five children of Albert and Maxine, all in California, Dan, Greg, Diane, Teresa and John.

As a teenager, when Katie came across the Maryknoll Magazine, she felt immediately and strongly attracted to the Maryknoll Sisters. She thought, for some reason that they did not teach but went out to the poor. In her own words, “Maryknoll means a great love of Christ and of others, especially the poor.”

Upon graduating from high school in June 1947, Katie unhesitatingly turned her sights to Maryknoll and entered that same year on September 6 at the Venard in Clark Summit near Scranton, Pennsylvania. At Reception, she was given the name Sister Mary Catherine de Paul. She made her First Profession of vows at Maryknoll, New York on March 7, 1950 and her Final Profession at Maryknoll on the same date in 1953.

It was also in June 1953 that she received her Bachelor of Education degree from Maryknoll Teachers College, at Maryknoll, New York. She was gifted musically and truly enjoyed the courses she took that summer at Manhattanville in the Pius X School of Liturgical Music. In September, she began a five-year teaching assignment at Transfiguration School in the Maryknoll parish in Chinatown, New York. In those years, she also benefited from summer courses in Child Psychology at Fordham University.

In 1958, Katie was assigned to Chile. Although as a teenager, she had indicated a preference for pastoral ministry, she was well started in her teaching career. She taught at Talcahuano, Chile until 1972, at which time she returned to Maryknoll, New York to give two years of service in the Development Department. It appears that whatever Kathleen did, whether it was to her liking or not, she did it well and with gusto, as Sister Anna Marian Pavao, then Vice President of the Congregation attests in her thanks to Katie for “your very fine and generous service in Development that helped us stay in mission around the world.” This was only the first of other kudos Katie would receive for her zeal in ministry.

Before returning to Chile in 1975, Kathleen served as moderator of a Cuban youth group in a parish in West New York, New Jersey. For the next nine years from 1975 to 84, in Talca, Chile, she directed a Family Catechetical program, started a soup kitchen in one of Puente Alto’s slums, and generally did what she loved best, accompany the poor people around her and listen to what they felt most deeply in their hearts. To her family and friends, she would write, “We are evangelized by the poor. From them we learn to live Charity.”

In 1984, Katie returned to Maryknoll, once again to give Congregational Service in various capacities until 1988. During those years she was also called upon to teach English as a Second Language to seminarians who were here from Medellin, Colombia specifically to study English.  

Then, having sensed the deep need of the Spanish-speaking immigrants in this country, Katie asked to transfer to the Eastern Region and was assigned on October 1, 1988. She served as a Pastoral Associate, and welcomed new immigrants to St. Paul’s parish in Spanish Harlem, New York City. Ever after she would cite the mutually enriching community life she had enjoyed there with two Sisters of Charity and one Sister of Mercy as one of the greatest blessings of her life.  “All were women of prayer and always manifesting loving concern for one another,” she said. Kathleen had intended to remain in New York for about three years, but then with the change of pastor she stayed on another year to assist in the transition.

On June 1, 1992, she was assigned to the Western Region serving in California where she continued as a Pastoral Associate, first at St. Anthony’s in Menlo Park and Redwood City. This placement was followed by another in El Sereno, in northeast Los Angeles, where she generously gave of herself to the multitudinous needs of new immigrants. She assisted them in finding shelter, both taught and trained teachers for the RCIA and for Confirmation, did home visiting, brought Communion to shut-ins and food to poor families. She also listened compassionately to the heartbreaking stories of displaced people.

As Katie neared the end of her service in El Sereno on April 30, 2001, the Catholic Charities of San Gabriel Pastoral Region awarded her a Certificate of Great Appreciation for the difference her compassion, initiative, energy and dedication had made to the people of that Region.

It was thus with a feeling of immense satisfaction that Katie requested a transfer to the Maryknoll Sisters community in Monrovia, CA, an assignment which was effective August 1, 2001. Her energy had begun to wane but she still hoped to be of help to her Sisters there, and indeed she was, joining them in both house and outreach ministries that brought such life to the community. The Monrovia house was never a dull place. Some people may remember watching “Secret Santa” on television in 2003. NBC had requested the use of the Maryknoll house for a week to film one segment of the story in which Kathleen, with five other Sisters, served as “extras.” It was also in Monrovia that Katie’s musical talent flourished. In her retirement years, she was music director and organist for the community, loving every minute.

In 2018, at age 89, Kathleen felt it was time to move back to the Maryknoll Center to be part of the Chi-Rho Community of semi-retired Sisters. Four years later, on October 1, 2022, she transferred to the Eden community where her health and social needs could be better met. The sisters knew that, in her generous and gentle spirit, she would continue to be active and do whatever she could to contribute to the life of the community.

We will remember Katie as someone who loved her family, was a loyal friend, and had a heart full of deep gratitude for all that she received in Maryknoll.  Consistent with the way she had lived her life, always wanting to be of help, she gave her body to science.

We welcome Fr. Joseph LaMar, MM, a fellow missioner, who will preside at this Memorial Liturgy.